'It's Me' is the big ballad of the album. It maybe slightly overlong, but it's enjoyable enough.
It's somewhat surreal hearing a a mandolin on an Alice Cooper song!
The lyrics show how much Alice knows about England:
"You took a first-class trip to Paris
You danced in the streets of Spain
You followed the sun to Rio de Janeiro
'cause you got so sick and tired of the London rain"
Like 'You Are My Temptation', the song was co-written by Tommy Shaw and Jack Blades
Alice Cooper - Vocals
Stef Burns - Guitar, Vocals
Greg Smith - Bass, Vocals
Derek Sherinian - Keyboards, Vocals
David Uosikkinen - Drums
John Purdell - Keyboards
09/10 - It's Me (Cooper, Shaw, Blades)
"You took a first-class trip to Paris
You danced in the streets of Spain
You followed the sun to Rio de Janeiro
'cause you got so sick and tired of the London rain
But honey, late at night when you close your tires eyes
You'll be there, I'll be here
And one of us will cry
It's me, it's me
When you need something more
Something you're dying for
It's me, it's me
When you can't see too clear
Baby, I'm always near
It's me
You played your cards, you felt the sorrow
'Cause all that dealer dealt was pain
But baby, where you gonna play tomorrow
The stakes were too damn high
And now, you're broke again
You can trip around 'till all your money's blown
But who's the man that'll take you in when all your luck is gone yeah
It's me, it's me
What are you searching for
I know you can find my door
It's me, it's me
I know you've sinned every sin
But I'll still take you in
It's me
And me, I'm sitting here
Nothing much has changed
You broke my heart to pieces, babe
But, huh, that's nothing strange
Well, I ain't angry
That's all come and gone
My arms are still wide open girl
To catch you when you fall
And if someday you realize just where you belong
I'm the man that'll take you in
When all your luck's gone, yeah
It's me, it's me
When you need something more
Something you're dying for
It's me, it's me
When you can't see too clear
Baby, I'm always near
It's me, it's me
What are you searching for
I know you can find my door
It's me, it's me
I know you've sinned every sin
But I'll still take you in
It's me
Yeah, baby, it's me"
The final song on the album
'Cleansed By Fire' is another good one, starting with a slow finger-plucking guitar style before exploding into a hard rock extravaganza. Oh, it's also one of those songs that...when you think it has ended, it hasn't!
Alice Cooper - Vocals
Stef Burns - Guitar, Vocals
Greg Smith - Bass, Vocals
Derek Sherinian - Keyboards, Vocals
David Uosikkinen - Drums
One of the credited co-writers of the song is Mark Hudson, who has gone from working with Ringo Starr, Aerosmith, The Scorpions and Ozzy Osbourne (amongst others), to being heavily involved in the television show 'The X-Factor'!
10/10 - Cleansed By Fire (Cooper, Hudson, Dudas, Saylor)
"I don't know but I've been told the streets of hell are paved with gold
Crazy, crazy
You told me that nothing's free except my own insanity
Crazy, maybe
Wake me, shake me
Wake me, shake me
You offer me the world and all its wealth
All for myself
You promised me a life eternally
And drink to my health
I may seem only half-glued
But I can see right through you
Burn it up, burn it down
Burn this sucker to the ground
Oh yeah, oh yeah
Going, going, going, gone
There's a party going on
Do you think I don't know who you are
A fallen star
When I feel my soul scream out at night
I know you're not far
You need a better disguise
This one won't win any prize
Burn it up, burn it down
Burn this sucker to the ground
Oh yeah, oh yeah
Going, going, going, gone
There's a party going on and on and on and on and on...
Cleansed by fire, cleansed by fire
I may seem only half-glued
But I can see right through you
What about dark
What about light
What about wrong
What about right
What about death
What about sin
What about the web you're trying to spin
What about truth
What about life
What about glory
What about Christ
What about peace
What about love
What about faith in God above
What about war
What about hell
What if I stumble
What if I fell
What about blood
What about greed
And all of these things you're offering me
Yeah, what about me
Little me
You lose, I win
You couldn't suck me in
It's over, you have no power
You're lost
And I'm found
And I'm, I'm Heaven bound
Go back to where you belong
To where you fell
Go to hell
Go......................."
Revisiting this album for the purpose of this review, I had forgotten just how good it is.
When 'The Last Temptation' was released in Japan, it contained a bonus CD of songs that were recorded live at the Electric Lady studios in New York during 1991. Tracks included were:
- Sick Things
- Only Women Bleed
- Wind Up Toy
- No More Mr Nice Guy
- Billion Dollar Babies
- Poison
- Hey Stoopid
The cover to the album contains a poster written in Japanese. This is an old fashioned poster for a Japanese side show. It is made up of three sets of characters. Each set is read Oriental-style, (in columns from top to bottom and from right to left. In other words, the first character is the blurry red one in the upper right corner (A), then B, then C, then D at the start of the next column, and so on). The red characters read "
Sando tenran no ei o tamawaru," which literally means "
Honored by being viewed by the Emperor three times." This is a stock cliche that used to be used by side shows in Japan, similar to the "Step right up and see the marvels that have amazed the crowned heads of Europe!" cliche. The Japanese expression has the same flavor.
The next set of characters G-J are read "
sekai muhi," which means "
nothing like it in the world".
"The third set K-M is read "
Dai kijutsu" and means something like "great magic," "fantastic sleight of hand," "stupendous illusions," etc
There was no specific tour to support 'The Last Temptation', although Alice did mention plans for one in various interviews around the release date. A reason for the non-tour could be due to the fact that Alice had left Epic (the record label the album was released on) just after the release of 'The Last Temptation', and they weren't going to finance a tour!
However, he DID play four festival shows in South America (Brazil, Chile and Argentina) between Sept 2nd and 9th, 1995. Although the show from Chile was broadcast live on television, there has (to date) not been any DVD release. The basic setlist for these shows was:
- Under My Wheels
- Hey Stoopid
- Eighteen
- No More Mr Nice Guy
- Desperado
- Billion Dollar Babies
- It's Me
- Lost In America
- Cleansed By Fire
- Go To Hell
- Instrumental Medley - Steven, Devil's Food, Black Widow
- Gutter Cat Vs The Jets/Street Fight Feed My Frankenstein
- Only Women Bleed
- Welcome To My Nightmare
- Ballad Of Dwight Fry
- School's Out
- Elected